Arabtec has stopped work on one of Nakheel’s largest housing projects because it has not been paid by the Dubai World-owned developer, says a senior official of the construction company.

The country’s largest construction company had been building Al Furjan, a development that was planned to include 4,000 homes. Arabtec won the $816m (Dh2.99 billion) contract for the first 1,500 homes in June 2008.

Riad Kamal, the chairman of Arabtec, said the company suspended work at the beginning of the year after building 550 villas at the development in Dubai. “We haven’t been paid, so it’s not ongoing.”

The National